Sequence 01: Ignorance Is Bliss

Follow Lucy to the Animus and sit inside. You'll sit through a cut scene in the middle of which you'll need to press some buttons to make baby Ezio kick and punch. You won't spend much time in the Animus as Lucy quickly pulls you out and tells you to follow her.

Hold the run button and follow Lucy through the compound. You'll run into some enemies at first, but Lucy takes care of them for you. Eventually, you make way to a room with narrow cubicle walkways. Follow closely behind Lucy and stop when she does. You should get through undetected, but if a guard catches up to you, just let Lucy drop him. She's chill like that.

After getting through the locked door with your amazing eagle vision, you're left in a garage packed with guards. Just keep hitting the punch button—there doesn't seem to be a way to screw this up—just knock out the guards one-by-one.

After another cut scene, you arrive at Lucy's super secret hideout pad. Follow her upstairs and to a room with a couple other people. You can walk around and talk to each of them, and even further explore the compound if you're a fan of walking really slowly. Ultimately, though, you just need to walk up to the Animus and sit down to kick off the first mission.

You're dropped into your first mission, which requires you beat up a lot of people. Be sure to lock onto an enemy, which allows you to throw up your guard and block incoming attacks. You've got access to a counter move that's incredibly useful if you can get the timing down. Just hold up your guard and press the attack button as an enemy swings on you to put him down instantly.

After beating down the first group of enemies, another swarm comes at you. Stick to the same strategy of guarding and countering and you shouldn't have much trouble destroying the clowns that attack you. Eventually, you'll get a cut scene to interrupt the brawl. Move around to the myriad unconscious bodies and loot them for money. When you've collected 200 florins, the mission ends.

Talk to Federico and he'll lead you to the doctor. Lock onto Federico and chase after him—he runs fast—while holding the two free-run buttons. Before long, you'll reach the doctor. Approach him (he is the dude in the funny mask) and he'll patch you up, for 200 florins.

Immediately, Federico challenges you to a race to the top of the church. You can simply run up the face of the building, moving toward handholds along the way, and easily get to the top before Federico does.

Run to the finish line, marked by a white wisp, and as long as you're there first the brief mission is over. Welcome to Assassin's Creed 2!

Walk to the glowing view point at the top of the tower and synchronize to fill out part of your map. Afterward, you're left to take a leap of faith off the top of the tower. Leap into the hay stack below and a quick cut scene will briefly interrupt your play.

Hop out of the hay pile and a target will show up on your map to guide you to Cristina's window. Follow after, but watch out for guards along the way. They're marked with red dots on the radar and red arrows in-game, and they can be easily avoided.

Walk up to the base of Cristina's window and then climb up to her for a lengthy cut scene. The final bit of the mission requires you fully escape the wrath of the guards bearing down on you. Run away! The first thing you need to do is get out of the sight of the guards, either by running really far or by climbing a building. Beware that climbing leaves you vulnerable to a shower of rocks.

When your radar stops glowing red, you can find a hiding spot which should be marked on your radar in blue. Successfully hide and the mission ends.

Check your map for an exclamation point that guides you to Ezio's father, Giovanni. He's got a very simple task for you: Deliver a letter. A new target shows up on your radar. Run toward it, but beware the watchful eye of the guards around you. If you take to the rooftops, you won't have to worry about them at all.

The target points you to a man on street level. Approach him and you'll get a quick cut scene and the new order to return to Giovanni. Run back, using the same rooftop-hopping strategy to avoid detection. When you return to Giovanni's pad, look for the door that's highlighted in white aura and open it up to end the mission.

Claudia is just chilling and needs you to exact revenge on her unfaithful man. Talk to her and you'll get the location of Duccio, the cheat. Make your way across down and approach Duccio's location for a quick cut scene. Be ready for a quick time event mid-conversation.

After dispensing with the formalities, you can get to punching the dude. For an easy win, grab Duccio and throw him down, then run to his body and start unloading kicks while he's down. Is that dirty? Maybe, but he deserves nothing better. After beating on Duccio for a while, he'll run off and the mission is over.

Find Petruccio and chat him up and he'll ask you to grab a feather for him. Truth is, you need to grab three feathers, but they're all marked on your map. The catch here is that you're given a set amount of time. Look for the nearest map marker and run to it.

All three of the feathers are found on rooftops, so you should immediately start climbing. Stay up top and you shouldn't have any problem collecting the three feathers in the given time. Once you've got the third feather, the timer stops and a marker for Petruccio's location shows up. Run to Petruccio's door and knock to end the mission.

Talk to Maria, Ezio's madre, and she'll ask you to follow her for a little errand. She walks slowly, so be patient. You can lock onto her to avoid losing her in the crowd, or just check your map for a moving, blue target to chase. Eventually she'll find her way to Leonardo's place. Yes, that Leonardo.

After the cut scene, pick up the small chest on the ground and start leading Maria and Leonardo to the new target that's on your map. You can do a little healthy job with the chest in your hands, so it shouldn't take long. Reach the end point and drop the chest in the swirl of light to complete the mission.

Giovanni has another couple of tasks for you, so find him and accept his mission. There are two letter deliveries you need to map. Just find the spots on the map, run there, and enter the light wisps to deliver each letter to its target. You're rewarded with a hint of story cut scene.

With the letters dispensed, you need to pick up a carrier pigeon for Giovanni. The pigeon coop's location will show up on your map just like the letter delivery targets. It's on a rooftop, so climb high to find it. Again, just enter the wisp of light to complete the task.

You might also have to examine the game's situational camera before the mission completes.

Return to Giovanni's pad and knock on his door. You'll find, through a lengthy cut scene, that he isn't around. Ezio decides to go talk to his father in jail. Make your way toward the marker on your map, but be careful as you get close. The prison has a lot more guards than you'll find elsewhere, and they're looking for you.

Stay on building tops surrounding the prison and approach it from the southern side. As you get higher up the prison, expect to run into an archer or two. If you approach them from behind, you can easily grab an archer and toss him off the top of the prison for an easy kill.

Giovanni is behind held in the highest tower of the prison. Climb up to the white light wisp for a cut scene that sheds a bit more light on the situation.

After talking to Giovanni, Ezio falls down into a hay pile. Mission complete.

Go back to Giovanni's room and use eagle vision to locate the hidden door. Okay, it's not really very hidden. Open the door and step into the secret room. Open up the chest inside to get a snazzy new outfit, plus a useful sword.

As you leave the room, you're interrupted by two guards that pull swords on you. Lock onto them and draw your sword. They're not difficult to fight, but we always suggest playing a defensive battle. Wait for the opponent to attack and, while holding the block button, counter attack for an instant kill.

When both guards are dead, a target appears on your map. Make your way there (we suggest the rooftops) and knock on the door encased in a wispy white to complete the mission.

This mission isn't too long, and isn't too difficult. Once you trigger it, just walk around the corner to the map marker for a cut scene.

Afterward, you're left with a whole bunch of guards chasing after you and you need to get away. You can simply run for it, or look for a building that you can climb quickly. If you choose to run for it on the streets it is much harder because some guards will be able to keep up with you. Ditching your pursuers is easier from the rooftops.